7 Signs Your Job Is Killing You

Lower-back pain, flu, migraines, arthritis, neck strain, ear infections – the list goes on. If you’re constantly in the doctor’s office for one reason or another, then a thorough check-up might trace all this back to your workplace. Sitting long hours at your desk in gravity-defying postures or being hunched over your computer for days at a time could cause you to suffer myriad ailments. Stress manifests itself in different ways in the body, leading directly to illnesses. Your job may be paying for your health insurance, but it might also be the main reason you use it!

4. Absence of Reward for Your Effort

If you’re genuinely a high achiever – always meeting deadlines, increasing sales, being punctual, providing ideas that grow profits for the organization – yet at the end of the month your paycheck hardly reflects the effort you put into your work, then you’re experiencing a reward imbalance. Studies have shown that this type of imbalance quickly translates into frustration, and the end result is burnout and, in extreme cases, mental illness. If you ever feel seriously underappreciated, then maybe it’s time to move on to greener pastures.

5. Being Too Busy About Nothing in Particular

This is probably one of the worst ways your job may be killing you, because it will be a slow and painful death. If your work demands that you remain seated over long periods with hardly any time for breaks, more often than not you’ll end up snacking on junk food. This lack of inactivity paired with increased intake of processed foods will eventually lower your metabolism and increase your waistline, and can lead to serious problems such as diabetes, obesity, hypertension and heart disease.